Generally speaking, the present invention pertains to a timing mechanism wherein at least first and second sets of electrical contacts are opened and closed in response to axial indexing of corresponding first and second shafts, and wherein a coupling means between the sets of electrical contacts and the shafts provides alternative conditions of the sets of electrical contacts whereby three electrical contact conditions are provided, namely: (1) with both the first and second shafts indexed "out" the first set of electrical contacts is closed and the second set open, (2) with both the shafts indexed "in" the first set of electrical contacts is open and the second set is closed, and (3) with the first shaft indexed "out" and the second shaft indexed "in" both the first and second sets of electrical contacts are closed.
The present invention is adaptable to range timers and particularly to range timers wherein the timers need to provide cooking time duration starting at a preselected time and ending at a preselected time.
While such timers are relatively well known in the art, the timers are for the most part complicated, bulky, and costly to produce. Moreover, because of their mode of structure, interchangeability between range timer dial plates is difficult if not impossible to achieve. The present range timer provides a modular structure which is simple and thus overcomes these problems.